The Ateneo de Manila University began in 1859 when Spanish Jesuits established the Escuela Municipal de Manila, a public primary school established in Intramuros for the city of Manila. However, the educational tradition of the Ateneo embraces the much older history of the Jesuits as a teaching order in the Philippines.

The first Spanish Jesuits arrived in the country in 1581. While primarily missionaries, they were also custodians of the ratio studiorum, the system of Jesuit education formulated about 1559. In 1590, they founded one of the first colleges in the Philippines, the Colegio de Manila (also known as the Colegio Seminario de San Ignacio) under the leadership of Antonio Sedeño, S.J. The school formally opened in 1595.

The altar of San Ignacio, decorated for a Marian feast in 1909. The church was the mother church, the 'golden dream' of the Jesuits in the Philippines. The church is no more. It was razed on February 1945. Only memories remain of it: a handful of pictures and some architectural plans.

In 1621, Pope Gregory XV, through the archbishop of Manila, authorized the San Ignacio to confer degrees in theology and the arts. Two years later, King Philip IV of Spain confirmed this authorization, making the school a royal and a pontifical university, the very first university in the Philippines and in Asia.

However, by the mid-18th century, Catholic colonial powers, notably France, Portugal, and Spain, had grown hostile to the Society of Jesus because the Jesuits actively educated and empowered colonized people. The Society was particularly notorious for encouraging indigenous people to seek self-governance. Because of this, the colonial powers eventually expelled the Society, often quite brutally, from their realms.

Mindanao with its fortresses and the territory occupied by the Jesuits and discalced cloistered Recoletos monastic order. 1683.

The Jesuits had to relinquish the San Ignacio to Spanish civil authorities in 1768, upon their violent expulsion from all Spanish territories. Finally, under pressure from Catholic royalty, Pope Clement XIV formally declared the dissolution of the Society of Jesus in 1773.

Pope Pius VII reinstated the Society in 1814, after almost seven decades of persecution and over four decades of formal suppression. However, the Jesuits would not return to the Philippines until 1859, almost a century after their expulsion.

Authorized by a royal decree of 1852, ten Spanish Jesuits arrived in Manila on April 14, 1859. This Jesuit mission was sent mainly for missionary work in Mindanao and Jolo. However, despite almost a century away from the Philippines, the Jesuits’ reputation as educators remained entrenched in the minds of Manila’s leaders. On August 5, the ayuntamiento or city council requested the Governor-General for a Jesuit school financed by public money.

On October 1, 1859, the Governor-General authorized the Jesuits to take over the Escuela Municipal, then a small private school maintained for 30 children of Spanish residents. Partly subsidized by the ayuntamiento, it was the only primary school in Manila at the time. Under the Jesuits, the Escuela eventually became the AteneoMunicipal de Manila in 1865 when it was elevated to an institution of secondary education. The AteneoMunicipal offered the bachillerato as well as technical courses leading to certificates in agriculture, surveying, and business.

Fr. Jose Fernandez Cuevas, S.J., first superior of the Escuela Municipal in 1859.

When American colonial rule came in 1902, the Ateneo Municipal lost its government subsidy. In 1908, the colonial government recognized it as a college licensed to offer the bachelor’s degree and certificates in various disciplines, including electrical engineering. In 1909, years after the Ateneo became a private institution, the Jesuits finally removed the word “Municipal” from the Ateneo’s official name, and it has since been known as the Ateneo de Manila.

American Jesuits took over administration in 1912. In 1932, under Fr. Richard O’Brien, third American rector, the Ateneo transferred to Padre Faura after a fire destroyed the Intramuros campus.

A street view of the original Intramuros campus of the Ateneo de Manila in 1909, its golden jubilee.

Father Rector Francis X. Byrne, S.J., appointed first American rector of the Ateneo de Manila in 1922, ten years after American Jesuits took over the administration of the Ateneo de Manila.

Devastation hit the Ateneo campus once again during World War II. Only one structure remained standing – the statue of St. Joseph and the Child Jesus which now stands in front of the Jesuit Residence in the Loyola Heights campus. Ironwork and statuary salvaged from the Ateneo ruins have since been incorporated into various existing Ateneo buildings. Some examples are the Ateneo monograms on the gates of the Loyola Heights campus, the iron grillwork on the ground floor of Xavier Hall, and the statue of the Immaculate Conception displayed at the University archives.

Father Rector Francisco Araneta, S.J., appointed first Filipino rector of the Ateneo de Manila in 1959.

But even if the Ateneo campus had been destroyed, the university survived. Following the American liberation, the Ateneo de Manila reopened temporarily in Plaza Guipit in Sampaloc. The Padre Faura campus reopened in 1946 with Quonset huts serving as buildings among the campus ruins.

The interior of the Ateneo de Manila Professional Schools in Rockwell, Makati.

In 1952, the university, led by Fr. James Masterson, S.J. moved most of its units to its present Loyola Heights campus. Controversy surrounded the decision. An Ateneo Jesuit supposedly said that only the ‘children of Tarzan’ would study in the new campus. But over the years, the Ateneo in Loyola Heights has become the center of a dynamic community. The Padre Faura campus continued to house the professional schools until 1976.

The first Filipino rector, Fr. Francisco Araneta, S.J. was appointed in 1958. And in 1959, its centennial year, the Ateneo became a university.

The Padre Faura campus was closed in 1976. A year after, the University opened a new campus for its professional schools in Salcedo Village, in the bustling business district of Makati. In October 1998, the University completed construction of a bigger site of the Ateneo Professional Schools at Rockwell, also in Makati.